Plus, they are the devil to solder. You have to clamp them down or they just wander off.

Those look like 0805s. I just got used to soldering them on, they are not that hard. I have a method to pre-solder the pads, top with flux, and then use a hot air gun and tweezers to apply these parts as the first step in assembly before larger parts and this works good for me - surface tension pulls them in and makes a nice heel. I look like a soldering expert under the microscope. I bought a kit that requires 0402 parts and I just got a cap and a resistor 0402 set so I now have 0805, 0603, and 0402 kits for caps and resistors in common values. I guess I am set.

Another oddball item arrived today, a 75 foot Siecor Gold fiber optic cable. Two strands, tiny stuff. I got it on one of those 99 cent bids.. mainly because I haven't played with optic fiber and seventy five feet of it for a buck was a no brainer.

Dog leash for the digital age? Strangle your wife with them and take her life insurance money? I have no idea; the fibers are so small that they aren't capable of much light output. I fiddled with some but never had much luck in the blinky light department.

Bought a couple of freetronics mega protoshields and stack header sets . A delight to put to use. Returned the Duratech soldering station that stopped working after 1 day and replaced it with the Dick Smith one. Still seems to be working after day #2.0.7mm solder melts a little quicker, a big help.

Nearly finished this project so bought the Experimenter's kit to have some fun...

Long ago I had local geek friends and sometimes we would chip in as a group and buy a bunch of something that was cheaper in quantity. I know that's not a bright idea over the net but I also know that if enough people want a thing at a better price then one person has a chance to get rid of excess after buying a bundle.

I've done this locally in my poor neighborhood with MP3 players and it worked fine but those were all people I knew who did buy from me at cost when the players came in. I didn't get stuck and everyone got factory refurb Sansa players for $12 ea just in time for Christmas giving. Same player new at WalMart was over $30. Part of my aim then was to raise awareness about prices and group action, poor don't have to be so poor, but that did not get through so well as the only pro-active one was me even after making the point.

So I am here now and there's an item that when 100 are bought costs 5 Euros each but when less than 100 are bought costs 20 Euros each. It's an audio module that I believe could work well and easily (I struggle with some others< STILL) with or without an MCU. I plan to get one to test and if it's what I think, figure out how to buy 100. I know someone who will want 20 and I will want 5 to 10 but the rest, I need to see if there will be takers after the units arrive, knowing that shipping won't be free.

http://www.vlsi.fi/en/products/vs1000module.html

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VS1000 Module provides a quick and low-cost way to add high-quality analog stereo output to a system. It has industrial qualification and long term availability that makes it attractive for many applications.

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Plays audio from micro-SD card or internal SPI Flash (or both) Can be customized, both firmware and content Can copy audio content and update firmware from micro-SD card to internal Flash Triggered via USB, UART or IO pins Line-out or headphone stereo analog outputs with SNR>90dB (A-weighted) High-performance license-free Ogg Vorbis decoder Supports variable bit-rates and many sample rates Plays from internal Flash up to 20 mins, play time can be extended to several days by using micro-SD card Firmware customization tool VSIDE is available for free Single power supply 3.4...5.5V, Note: IOVDD is generated from internal regulators, IO pins are not 5V tolerant! Low-power operation Industrial temperature range

Note that the IO pins are 3.4V only, need voltage leveling to use. But it has USB and UART IO which I'm pretty sure that USB is always 5V and I think (please help here!) that UART is the same 5V as our serial and software serial.